The Supreme Court on 8th May clarified that the ban on sale and registration of Bharat Stage-III (BS-III) vehicles is not applicable to equipment used for farming and construction and manufacturers of such vehicles can continue to sell them. While stating that the March ban order on BS-III applies only to commercial goods carriers and passenger vehicles, the court mentioned farming and construction vehicles don’t fall under the two banned categories as they have different emission norms. This clarification has come as a huge relief for construction equipment vehicles manufacturers as a large volume of construction equipment vehicles were not been registered by RTOs in many states, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Tamil Nadu post the ban came into force on April 1.